A coaxial active tap is disclosed in copending patent application Ser. No. 439,240, filed Nov. 3, 1982, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,249, issued May 13, 1986, for Coaxial Cable Tap Connector, and assigned to the assignee of the present application. That application describes a tap with three subassemblies. First and second of the subassemblies cooperate to sandwich a cable to be tapped. A third subassembly is slidably assembled on to both the first and the second subassemblies to hold the subassemblies temporarily on the cable. The subassemblies then are secured together by a bolt fastener. The first assembly called the "tap body", includes a lateral aperture which is internally threaded to attach a probe assembly. The probe assembly includes an anterior needle which passes along an opening through the outer conductor of the cable as well as the cable insulating sheath and contacts the electrically conducting core of the cable.
Prior to the attachment of the probe assembly, the opening through the outer conductor of the cable as well as the cable insulating sheath is formed by being drilled out through the lateral aperture. The various steps in the tap procedure thus require a drill and a means for tightening the attached probe assembly. Both the drill and the tightening means are adapted to fit within the lateral aperture and the drill is adapted to seat in a manner to prevent penetration of the cable core. The present invention is directed at a single tool adapted to perform the requisite procedures.